Heel-seat fitting machine



NOV. 6, 1934. G HAZEL-[ON 1,979,386

I HEEL SEAT FITTING MACHINE Filed Feb. 28, 1933 2 Sheets-Sheet l Fig.1.

A/l/EA/TA Nov. 6, 1934. G. HAZELTON HEEL SEAT FITTING MACHINE 2 Sheets-Sheet Filed Feb. 28, 1935 Patented Nov. 6 1934 P TENT OFFICE V 1,9793%, HEEL-SEAT FITTING George Hazeltcn, Leicester,'England, assignor to United Shoe Machinery Corporation, Paterson, N. J a corporation of New Jersey Application February 28, 1933, Serial No. 658,969

r In Great Britain March 17, 1932 12 Claims.

, l beveling cut thereby reducing the heel-seat portion of the sole and giving it a shape substantially complemental to that of the attaching face of the heel. As part of the same operation it is usual toform at opposite sides of the reduced heel-seat 15, portion a pair of heel-breast receiving shoulders which engage the upper lateral portions of the breast of the heel when the heel is positioned upon the shoe. A machine for trimming the heel-seat portions of soles'of shoes for the reception of either Cuban or. Louis heels is disclosed in United States Letters Patent No; 1,850,149, granted March 22, 1932 on an application filed in my name. i -l It frequentlyhappens that when the central part of the reduced heel-seat portion of a thick sole is trimmed to uniform thickness as described in the above-mentioned United. States Letters Patent No. 1,850,149, the forward portions ofthe rim of theattaching face of the heel being attached to the shoe are held slightly away from the counter portion of the shoe although the remaining portion of the rim of the attaching face snugly engages the counter portion of the shoe. This difliculty is due at least partly tothe steel shank piece. which is located between theinsole and the outsole and extends slightly rearwardly of the heel breast line.

With the above considerations in view it is frequently desirable to reduce the thickness of the forward part of the heel-seat portion of a sole by an amount sufficient to insure that the forward part of the rim of the attaching face will engage} the counter portion of the shoe. The sole, however, should not be trimmed to such a depth as to render the forward part of its heel-seat portion ineffective as a base for supporting the sole. In

order to reduce the thickness of the forward part of the heel-seat portion of the sole it is customary for the operator,.by the use of a hand knife; to makean incision extending from one heel-breast receiving shoulder to; the other and then to make a out which is of increasing depth, starting at the central portion of the heel-seat and progressing forwardly of the sole to the transversely extending incision, thereby to form at the forward endof the heel seat a heel-breast receiving abutment extending from oneheel-breast receiving shoulder to the other, The height of the abutment may be about equal to one-half of the thickness of the sole, the abutment forming with the heel-breast receiving shoulders a substantially continuous surface of a shape which is substantially complemental to the portion of the breast of the heel with which it is to engage.

In preparing shoes for the reception of Louis orsemi-Louis heels some shoe manufacturers prefer to form theabove-described abutment at the forward end of the reduced heel-seat portion of the sole in order that the projecting lip of the heel may engage the abutment instead of overriding the sole at its median portion. In such constructions the height of the abutment is substantially equal to the thickness of the lip of the heelin order to-insure thatwhen the covering flap has been secured to, the breast of the attached heel a bulge will not be formed where the flap covers the joint formed between the abutmentand the forward end of the lip of the heel.

It :is an objectof this invention to provide a machine. by the use of which the above-men- 30. tioned trimmingv operation upon the heel-seat portions of soles of shoes may be quickly and effectively performed, in order that the heels to be attached to the respective shoes will seat accurately upon the same. 85.

vWith the above object in view and in accord: ance with features of this invention the illustrated machine is provided with a support for a shoe,--a cutter, gages constructed and arranged toxengage heel-breast receiving shoulders arranged at opposite sides of the heel-seat portion of thesoleof a shoe mounted upon the support for positioning the shoe lengthwise relatively to the cutter, mechanism to effect relative movement between the support and the cutter to cut in the heel-seat portion an incision extending transversely of suclrportion of the sole, and a cutterfor trimmingmaterial from the heel-seat portion adjacent to the incision.

In the illustrated machine the cutter which makes the transversely extending incision is fixed and the support upon which the shoe is mounted, after being positioned lengthwise by the gages, is moved against the cutter to make the incision and thus to form an abutment surface extending from one heel-breast receiving shoulder of the sole to the other and forming a substantially continuous surface with the heelbreast receiving shoulders. In order to regulate the depth of the incision the illustrated machine is provided with a stop which limits the movement of the support toward the cutter. The gages are positioned at opposite sides of the cutter and are mounted for yielding movement relatively to the cutter under pressure of the shoe as the support is moved toward the cutter. In order to decrease the thickness of the heel-seat portion of the sole immediately rearward of the heel-breast line the heel seat reducing cutter is mounted for movement in a path extending generally lengthwise of the shoe. While the cutter which trims material from the reduced heel-seat portion of the sole is moved forwardly, the abutment-forming cutter is held in the incision and supports the sole against the action of the heelseat reducing cutter and serves as an anvil against which said cutter operates.

In the drawings,

Fig. 1 is a side elevational view of the illustrated machine showing a shoe in the process of having its sole trimmed in the machine; Fig. 2 is a front elevational view of the operating head of the machine and illustrating a sectional view of a shoe taken along line II-II of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a perspective View of the rear part of an inverted shoe after it has been fitted for the reception of a, Louis heel in the machine disclosed in the above-mentioned United States Letters Patent No. 1,850,149;

Fig. 4 is a perspective view illustrating the relative positions of shoe-positioning gages and cutters, which trim the reduced heel-seat portion of the sole shown in Fig. 3, during the latter part of the sole-trimming operation; and

Fig. 5 shows in perspective the heel-seat portion of the shoe after being trimmed in the illustrated machine.

The illustrated machine is provided with a form or support 20 upon which is mounted a shoe 21 including an outsole 23 having a heel-seat portion 22 (Fig. 3), which has already been reduced and may be referred to as a reduced heel seat, and a pair of heel-breast receiving shoulders 24 positioned at opposite sides of the heelseat portion. As above stated, it is sometimes desirable, especially where the shoe is reinforced by a shank plate 25 (Fig. 2) which projects rearwardly of the heel-breast line of the sole 23, to decrease the thickness of the forward part of the heel-seat portion 22 in order to insure that the forward portions of the rim of the attaching face of a heel 27 which is to be attached to the shoe may snugly engage the counter portion 29 of the shoe. Accordingly, as above stated, it has been the practice whenever the heel does not properly seat upon the shoe for the operator to trim a wedge-shape chip 26 (Fig. 4) from the forward part of the heelseat portion 22 of the sole by the use of a hand knife thereby to provide an abutment 28 (Fig. 5) extending transversely of the heel-seat portion of the sole and forming a continuation of the heel-breast receiving shoulders 24.

The abutment 28 is formed by a cutter or knife 30 which may be clamped in adjusted position to a forwardly extending or overhanging arm 32 of a standard 34 by a screw 36. The form or support 20 upon which the shoe is positioned bottom side up as illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2 and operating mechanism therefor is substantially the same as that disclosed in the above-mentioned United States Letters Patent No. 1,850,149 and is mounted for sliding movement lengthwise of the shoe mounted upon the support along a guideway 38 (Fig. 1) formed in a forwardly projecting flange 39 of the standard 34.

The shoe may be positioned lengthwise in the machine by moving the support 20 rearwardly along the guideway 38 until the heel-breast receiving shoulders 24, respectively, engage a pair of gages 40 which are positioned at opposite sides of the knife 30 and normally extend slightly below the cutting edge 42 of the same.

In order to move the shoe against the knife 30 to make an incision extending from one heelbreast receiving shoulder 24 to the other, the support 20 is adjustably secured to a rod 44 (Fig. 1) mounted for reciprocation in an upright housing 46 and is operated by a lever 48 which is pivoted upon a pin 50 carried by the main frame and is actuated through a link 52 connected to a treadle 54. In order to prevent the support 20 from moving forwardly of the machine a dog 56 is mounted upon the pin 50 and is moved into engagement with a rack 58 formed at the bottom of the housing 46 by a spring 60, the upper end of which is connected to the lever 48 and the lower end of which is secured to the dog 56.

The depth of the incision made by the knife 30 is limited by a stop or stop member 62 arranged to engage the shank portion of the sole and also by a stop or stop member 64 positioned for engagement with the rear part of the overlasted counter portion of the shoe. The stop member 62 may be clamped in adjusted relation to the knife 30 by a clamp screw 66 which is in threaded relation with the knife 30 and has a shank portion shaped to pass through a slot 68 of the stop member 62. The stop member 64 is mounted for adjustment heightwise of the machine along a guideway 70 of the main frame and may be clamped in adjusted position to the main frame by a screw '72.

It is desirable that the gages 40 yield as the shoe mounted upon the support is moved upwardly against the knife 30. Accordingly, the gages 40 are slidably mounted in V-shaped guideways 74 (Fig. 2) formed in the overhanging arm 32 of the machine and are normally held in their lowered positions by a leaf spring '76 the central part of which is clamped to the forwardly extending arm 32 and the end portions of which engage screws 78 which are in threaded engagement with flange portions 80 (Fig. 1) of the gages 40. The downward movement of the gages 40 is limited by the engagement of the screws '78 with the overhanging arm 32. As the shoe upon the support 20 is raised against the knife 30 the gages 40 are forced upwardly under pressure of the shoe against the pressure of the spring '76.

The operator moves the shoe mounted upon the support 20 rearwardly until the heel-breast receiving shoulders 24 engage the gages 40 respectively. He then steps upon the treadle 54 to raise the support 20 thereby to press the shoe against the knife 30 to make an incision extending transversely of the heel-seat portion 22 of the shoe to form the abutment surface 28.

In order to remove material from the forward part of the reduced heel-seat portion 22 of the ;sole the illustrated machine is provided with a butter or knife 88 (Fig. 1) which is mounted for movement in a path extending generally lengthwise of the shoe but having a slight heightwise component, to remove the wedge-shaped chip 26 (Fig. 4) from the heel-seat portion 22 of the sole. The knife 88 is adjustably clamped by a screw 90 to a slide 92 having a dovetail projection 94 shaped and arranged for reception in a correspondingly ev-gees shaped guid'eway of ablock 96 which is secured by screws 98 to the overhanging arm 32. In order to operate the knife 88 the slide 92 is connected by a link 180 to an operating lever 102 which is fulcrumed upon a pin 104 carried by the machine frame and is normally held in a rearward position against a stop screwlOG by a spring 108, one end of which is secured to a rearwardly extending arm of the lever 102 and the other end of which is secured to the frame of the machine.

The block 96 maybe initially adjusted widthwise of the shoe along a guideway 110 to position laterally the path of movement of the knife 88, and the knife 88 may be adjusted lengthwise relatively to the slide 92 so that an abutment 112 will engage the block 96 to control the extent of forward movement of the knife 88 if desirable. In order to support the portion of the sole being trimmed against displacement by the heel-seat reducing knife 88 and to insure the forming of a clean-cut dihedral angle 114 (Fig. 5) the knife 88 operates upon the heel-seat portion while the support 20 is in its raised position and preferably engages the abutment-forming knife 30 which serves as an anvil against which the knife 88 operates.

Although the illustrated machine has been described with reference to the trimming of the heel-seat portions of Louis or semi-Louis heels it will be understood that the machine may readily be equipped to operate upon soles for the reception of Cuban heels by providing an abutment-forming knife having a slightly curved shank portion and by providing a heel-seat rel ducing knife having a concave cutting edge curved in accordance with the curvature of the shank portion of the abutment-forming knife.

The gages 40, instead of being formed separately as illustrated, may, if desirable, be formed integrally and be referred to in the singular. Although the machine has been illustrated with reference to its use in decreasing the thickness of the heel-seat portions of soles which have been reduced by the machine disclosed in United States Letters Patent No. 1,850,149 it will be clear that the knives 30 and 88 may be increased in width to form an abutment surface extending across the width of the sole and to reduce the thickness of the heel-seat portion rearwardly of the abutment respectively. Moreoven'the path of movement of the heel-seat reducing cutter 88 may be varied in accordance with the amount of material to be removed from the heel-seat portion of the sole.

In order to remove material from the part of the heel-seat portion of the sole lying heelwardly of a line joining the two heel-breast receiving shoulders 24 the operator adjusts the stop 62 relatively to the cutting edge 42 of the knife 30 in accordance with the depth of the incision desired and also adjusts the stop 62 to insure that the heel portion of the inside of the shoe will be clamped against the support 20 when the support is moved to a raised position. The knife 88 is then adjusted relatively to the slide 92 to insure that the cutting edge of the knife 88 practically engages the knife 30 when the abutment 112 engages the block 96.

After making the proper adjustments the operator places the shoe upon the support and moves the housing 46 rearwardly along the guideway 38 until the heel-breast receiving shoulders 24 of the sole of the shoe mounted upon the support have moved into engagement with the gages 40. The support 20 is then raised bystepping upon the treadle 54 until the shank portion of the shoe engages the stop member 62 to make an incision which forms the abutment surface 28. In order to remove a wedge-shaped slice of sole material from the forward part of the heelseat portion of the shoe the operator retaining his foot on the treadle 54 draws the operating lever 102 forwardly to cause the knife 88 to move forwardly to trim the chip 26 (Fig. 4) from the sole. The knife 88 is then moved to its rearward position and the operator, after removing his foot from the treadle 54, finally moves the support 20 forwardly preparatory to removing the shoe from the machine.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim isnew and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. In a heel-seat fitting machine, a cutter, a support for a shoe, means for moving the support in a predetermined path to force the shoe against the cutter thereby to form a heel-breast receiving abutment on the sole of the shoe, anda cutter mounted for reciprocation in a path which is disposed at an angle to said first-named path to reduce the sole rearwardly of and adjacent to the abutment.

2. A heel-seat fitting machine having, in combination, a fixed knife, means to support a shoe having an attached sole, means to move the support toward the knife thereby to cause the knife to form on the sole of the shoe an abutment surface shaped and arranged to engage the breast of aheel to be attached to the shoe, and means movable generally lengthwise of the shoe to reduce the heel-seat'portion of the sole adjacent to the abutment surface.

3. In a heel-seat fitting machine, a fixed knife, a support for a shoe, means for moving the support to force the shoe against the knife thereby to cause the knife to form a heel-breast receiving abutment extending transversely of the sole,

a stop to limit the movement of the support, and another knife to reduce the sole rearwardly of and adjacent to the abutment surface, said firstnamed knife being arranged to support the sole against movement under pressure of the secondnamed knife.

4. In a heel-seat fitting machine, a cutter, a support for a shoe, means for moving the support to force the shoe against the cutter thereby to form a heel-breast receiving abutment onithe sole of the shoe, and a cutter to reduce the sole rearwardly of and adjacent to the abutment, said first-named cutter being arranged to support the sole against movement under pressure of the second-named cutter.

5. A heel-seat fitting machine having, in combination, a fixed cutter, a support for a shoe, a stop positioned adjacent to the cutter, means to move the support relatively to the cutter until the shoe engages the stop thereby causing the cutter to make an incision extending transversely of the heel-seat portion of the sole of the shoe, and means to reduce the thickness of the heelseatportion of said sole adjacent to and rearwardly of the incision.

6. A heel-seat fitting machine having, in combination, a knife, a support for a shoe having a sole provided with a reduced heel-seat portion and a pair of heel-breast receiving shoulders extending transversely of the sole at opposite sides of the base of said portion, gages constructed for engagement with said heel-breast receiving shoulders to position the shoe lengthwise, means for effecting relative movement between the support and the knife to form an abutment surface extending transversely across the reduced heelseat portion, means for limiting the relative movement of the support and the knife, and a knife for removing sole material adjacent to and rearwardly of said abutment surface.

7. A heel-seat fitting machine having, in combination, a fixed cutter, a support for a shoe having a sole provided with a pair of heel-breast receiving shoulders, a stop member, a pair of gages constructed and arranged to engage said heel-breast receiving shoulders for positioning the shoe lengthwise, means to move the support relatively to the cutter until the shoe engages said stop member thereby to cause the cutter to make an incision extending transversely of the heel-seat portion of the sole, and means to reduce the thickness of the heel-seat portion immediately rearward of the incision.

8. A hee1-seat fitting machine having, in combination, a fixed cutter, a support for a shoe having a sole which is provided with a heel-seat portion and a pair of heel-breast receiving shoulders, a stop member, a pair of gages constructed and arranged to engage said heel-breast receiving shoulders for positioning the shoe lengthwise, means to move the support relatively to the cutter until the sole engages said stop member thereby causing the cutter to make an incision extending transversely of the reduced heelseat portion, said gages being arranged normally to extend beyond the cutting edge of the cutter and yieldingly mounted for movement relatively to the cutter under pressure of the shoe as the support is moved toward the cutter, and means to reduce the thickness of the heel-seat portion of the sole immediately rearward of the incision.

9. A heel-seat fitting machine having, in combination, a knife, a support for a shoe having a sole provided with a pair of heel-breast receiving shoulders, means constructed and arranged for engagement with said shoulders to position the shoe lengthwise, means to move the support relatively to the knife to cause the knife to form at the forward end of the heel-seat portion of the sole an abutment surface extending transversely of the sole, and a cutter for removing sole material adjacent to and rearwardly of the abutment surface, said shoulder-engaging means being nor mally arranged to project beyond the cutting edge of the knife and mounted for yielding movement relatively to the knife as the support is moved toward the knife.

10. A heel-seat fitting machine having, in combination, a cutter, a support for a shoe having a sole provided with a reduced heel-seat portion and a pair of heel-breast receiving shoulders extending transversely of the sole at opposite sides of the base of saidportion, gages constructed and arranged for engagement with said heelbreast receiving shoulders to position the shoe lengthwise, means to effect relative movement of the cutter and the support to form an abutment surface extending transversely of the reduced heel-seat portion, means for removing sole material adjacent to and rearwardly of the abutment surface, said gages being arranged normally to project beyond the cutting edge of the cutter and mounted for yielding movement relatively to the cutter upon relative movement of the cutter and the support, and means to limit the extent of the projection of the gages beyond the cutting edge of the cutter.

11. A heel-seat fitting machine having, in combination, a support for a shoe having a sole provided with a reduced heel-seat portion and a pair of heel-breast receiving shoulders extending transversely of the sole at opposite sides of the base of said portion, a pair of gages constructed and arranged for engagement with said heelbreast receiving shoulders respectively to position the shoe lengthwise, a fixed knife, means to move the support relatively to the cutter to cause the cutter to form an abutment surface extending transversely of the reduced heel-seat portion of the sole from one heel-breast receiving shoulder to the other, and means to remove sole material adjacent to and rearwardly of said abutment, said gages being arranged normally to project beyond the cutting edge of the cutter and yieldingly mounted for movement relatively to the cutter under pressure of the shoe upon movement of the support.

12. A heel-seat fitting machine having, in combination, a knife, a support for a shoe the sole of which is provided with a reduced heel-seat portion and a pair of heel-breast receiving shoulders extending transversely from the base of said portion, gage members constructed and arranged for engagement with the heel-breast receiving shoulders to position the shoe lengthwise, means for moving the support relatively to the knife to cause the knife to form an abutment surface extending transversely of the sole from one heelbreast receiving shoulder to the other, a stop to limit the movement of the support toward the knife for regulating the height of the abutment surface, another knife for trimming from the reduced heel-seat portion material located rearwardly of said abutment surface, and means for adjusting the stop relatively to the knife to vary the height of the abutment surface and the amount of material trimmed from the reduced heel-seat portion.

GEORGE HAZEL'I 'ON. 

